Suspected drug dealer shot by DC-area police dies

AP-US-Police-Shooting-Maryland

LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — A police officer in a Maryland suburb of Washington fatally shot a man when he grabbed a gun during a struggle, police said Friday.

A member of the community told police about a man who was known to be armed and selling drugs in the Landover area and "terrorizing" people as part of a loose group robbing people, Prince George's County Police Chief Hank Stawinski said at a late-night news conference Thursday. Members of the department's emergency services team and narcotics enforcement division worked together on the operation Thursday night and believed the man was "conducting illegal activity" in the area.

Officers spotted a man who matched the suspect's description and approached 40-year-old Gregory Campfield Jr. of Landover, police said in a release Friday. Campfield ignored commands to stop and show his hands, and instead fled, police said. An officer tackled Campfield and warned fellow officers after seeing Campfield had a gun. A second officer witnessed the struggle and saw that the Campfield was holding the gun, authorities said. That's when police said the struggling officer shot Campfield and then provided medical aid.

Campfield was taken to a hospital, where he died several hours later. A phone number listed for Campfield wasn't in service.

No officers were injured.

A gun, drugs and cash were found at the scene, Stawinski said. Police later tweeted a photo of the gun in a grassy area surrounded by yellow crime-scene tape.

The officer who shot Campfield is on routine administrative leave. Police haven't yet released his name or race or Campfield's race.

This is the second fatal police shooting involving county police this month. On Aug. 1, police said an officer shot and killed an armed man as he fled a liquor store where he had just fatally shot a man. Authorities said the man didn't comply with the officer's order to drop a gun.